How to deal with your team being knocked out of the World Cup, national pride and ignoring online trolls

So at 1am Eastern Australian time, the final game of the 2018 World Cup was played and France won the competition. Congratulations France, a very good team and hardly a shock result. This didn’t make me look forward to my 77th day of farmwork today as I work with a French girl that I knew would be more than happy to boast about it. I also work with her friend, a Belgian girl that beat England to third place the day before. The French girl was more upset she wasn’t at home celebrating with her fellow Frenchmen and women.

I’m honestly happier with our performance at this World Cup more than anything. This was the joint-best performance by England in a World Cup on foreign soil, we ended our penalty shootout curse and made it to the final four.

Also, football helps inspire me to do as well as I can in my personal life. It is times like these that make me realise that I cannot solely rely on others for bragging rights, if I want to achieve I have to put my own effort in. The England players, as well as the players from all 32 teams, are representing a nation but also being the best they can be, making the most of their own lives. Losing helps remind me that we have to be the best we can be and probably have to rely on ourselves if we want to be successful and victorious as individuals regardless of the paths we choose to go down.

But back to the recent tournament. The majority of England thinks that the team did very well and are happy with that. But that doesn’t prevent many people making their voices heard on YouTube videos and England’s social media sites.

‘No one cares’

‘Without the trophy though’

‘At least something came back…’

‘You were lucky to get that far’

There are some very bitter people in the world. It takes effort to be negative online- first, I have to search the page I want to be negative on. That is unless I have already followed the page and get regular updates, which confuses me as to why someone would ‘like’ something or someone in the first place if they prefer to insult. Secondly, I have to hit ‘add comment’, type away and spread a little poison. This procedure takes a little time, enough time to make me think ‘Do I really want to spend my time doing this?!’.

Admittedly I have been a little salty on occasions in my life, and I have been drawn in to respond to people too. Now I refrain from such comments altogether, instead I prefer to let them inspire a new post on my blog. It’s healthier and more productive.

I understand some of the hate, some people get their kicks from negativity for a number of reasons. Some are bitter they may have been knocked out by England, as I’m sure many England fans are and have been in the past. Every country is prone to this. Some see England as a big footballing nation (despite many England fans being more than willing to disagree due to our bad World Cup and Euro record) and take great pride in seeing Iceland knock us out in 2016 and Croatia this time round in the semi finals.

In my opinion, we were much more humble during this tournament than many would think. Yes we chanted ‘it’s coming home!’ endlessly throughout each stage, a song we have sang since its release 22 years ago to no avail. If you haven’t heard it or seen the video, take a look. It’s pretty catchy:

It is a song we sing with great optimism and a little humour. If you asked many people in recent decades if they truly felt it was coming home as they belt the lyrics out in chorus, it would seem apparent that we know we aren’t the greatest football nation to grace this earth. If we are great at something, it is laughing at ourselves. It is a shame British humour doesn’t always seem so apparent outside of the border.

But with this in mind, how many other nations have anthems that actually envision the glory seen by the eight teams that have won the competition in its 88 years of existence? I’m sure a few. Can you imagine any teams chant being humble?

‘La la la la… we may potentially win with a good performance… La la la’.

Not in a million years!

Sport is about competition, and having the belief in winning surely helps it become reality. It doesn’t bother me that nations convince themselves they will be victorious. It’s a football game, not a world war. But then again, I guess I am being over dramatic. It’s only a few comments after all. But it does seem to be aimed towards the more dominant teams in world football. If Iceland’s fans shouted at the top of their lungs how great they are, it is seen as cute. National pride. If it’s a more dominant nation, it is arrogance. I guess that comes with it, everyone roots for the underdog.

But that is what many of us think we are. Underdogs! We never expected to get as far as we did, the hope of winning something that we haven’t won since ’66 has us dreaming but not expecting. We are in that weird place between seeing ourselves as underdogs (not to the same degree as smaller footballing nations of course) and being seen overseas as an overly optimistic country that thinks it is a favourite, when really it is an underdog.

Gary Lineker, former England player and now TV presenter for Match of the Day for the BBC, tweeted a great response to the accusations of England being ‘arrogant’ with the song:

See…

Just having a laugh, guys…Just another laugh, he didn’t really buy a trophy cabinet. I don’t think…

So these are my thoughts on this. Maybe I’m being too bitter myself, it’s only football banter after all and boy did I love seeing our European and South American football rivals leave the competition early. But I wouldn’t bother searching their national teams Instagram to talk shit. If we spent as much time being creative as so many people do being negative, we would all be winners.

What do you think? Do you feel certain nations of the world are seen as arrogant whilst other nations get away with it? How does your country compare and was it in this years World Cup?

As always, I would love to hear your opinion and personal perspective wherever you are.

As a reasonably-not-ugly American I only tangentially followed the World Cup…though I did see that England made it deep into our tournament. Congratulations…for both England’s success and your positive attitude!

I grew up outside Philadelphia. Despite hailing from the 5th largest (or is it 6th now?) city in the US, we have a severe “underdog” chip on our shoulders (I joke we are merely the rest stop between New York City and Washington, DC).

So when our “American football” Eagles made it to the 2018 Super Bowl against the dynastic New England Patriots, nobody gave us a chance…and Saturday Night Live had fun at the expense of both teams’ smack talk (and the regions’ distinctive accents, yo):

Having lived in Somerville, Waltham and Brookline for most of the last 30 years, I loved this skit. I hope I did not bring back bad memories–not that there are many with the Brady-Belichick Pats. What a dynasty. 🙂

Haha well I’m glad we can both relate to this despite different sports, (I don’t think Americans are ugly at all by the way, and neither do most people that I meet!) the video didn’t work in Australia unfortunately however I found it on Facebook and watched it from there. Was funny! I like SNL skits.
I heard about your win, didn’t the city go crazy? I am sure we would have caused a few riots in England if we were victorious. I also wish I visited this ‘rest stop’ whilst I travelled between Washington DC and NYC by coach, it sounds like a great city 🙂

Yes, there was a massive parade and much revelry. I recommend both Philadelphia and Boston: the city where I was raised and the city where I live. As for our “ugliness”–I sincerely apologize to the rest of the human race for the orange imbecile we elected president (on a technicality).

Haha don’t worry about it, as a Brit, there are many people that feel apologetic about the things that we have done and are doing. We can’t control the higher powers unfortunately…
I have been to Boston, really enjoyed t and it reminded me of being back home in the UK. Was fascinating!

Since the US didn’t make it, my husband and I in Colorado were rooting for England. And I do agree with you…the world would be a much better place if the negative people would put that energy to better use. Sadly, I don’t see that changing. If anything, it’s gotten worse. All we can do is try to make our corner of the world better in any way we can. 🙂

Thanks for rooting for us!
Just for the record, I bought NHL 04 on the PlayStation 2 when I was in school, it had Joe Sakic for the Colorado Avalanche on the front and they became my favourite team!
You’re right, let’s be positive where we are and be the difference we want to see. Thanks for commenting!

What a coincidence! We’re originally from LA and my husband is the biggest Kings fan there is. I asked him who Joe Sakic is (I’m not all that into sports) and he just rattled off more stats and info than I could ever care to know about the guy. 🙂 And he says to say “Go Kings Go!”

As a sports fan I get what you’re saying, Sam. We Americans wrote the book on trolling other teams fans, whether it be in person or on the internet. The clip that Matt sent you from SNL, on Philadelphia and New England fans was SPOT ON. I was hysterical with laughter because those two cities, plus New York City , too have such a big rivalry. The accents were spot on also. I had to watch the clip again.

The accents were very accurate. Tina Fey, who did the Philadelphia accent is actually from Phily and they do speak like that. The WAWA that they mention is a store in the South Jersey- Philadelphia area and the Dunkin, that the New Englanders mention is Dunkin Donuts, a chain that sells pastries and coffee. It started in Rhode Island and most of us on the East Coast of the United States grew up eating their donuts and drinking Dunkin Donuts coffee .

I never knew about WAWA, thanks for letting me know. We have Dunkin Donuts everywhere in the UK, Newcastle (my home city) got their first not too long ago. It is popular this side of the pond too, so thanks for giving us that! 🙂

Coming a little late to the game… Go England! One year out of high school I was traveling through the islands. Scotland England Wales. The World Cup was going on and I was so excited and still am every time. I don’t care who wins. I just love the whole atmosphere and event! Go sports!